Immunity of the Prophets

"The very object of the raising up of the prophets and Imams makes it clear that they themselves must be free from the bondage of sin or error, and thus, the doctrine of the infallibility or immunity has therefore always been an admitted principle of Islam.

The Bible itself, notwithstanding the many alterations, contains clear evidence of the immunity of the prophets. Of Noah, it is said that he "was a just man and perfect in his generation" (Gen. 6:9). To Abraham, the Lord said: "Walk before Me and be thou perfect" (Gen. 17:1). To Moses, He said: "Thou shalt be perfect with the Lord thy God" (Deut. 18:13). Now perfect is more than sinless. The Bible says: "Blessed are the perfect in the way, who walk in the law of the Lord....They also do not iniquity: they walk in His ways" (Ps. 119:13). And again: "The law of his God is in his heart; none of his steps shall slide" (Ps. 37:31). Zacharias, according to the writers of the Gospels, was not a prophet, and yet both he and his wife are declared to be sinless: "And they were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments of the Lord, blameless" (Lk. 1:6). And of John, it is said that he was "filled with the Holy Ghost, even from his mother's womb" (Lk. 1:15). In the face of such clear words upholding the sinlessness of prophets, it is sheer defiance of sacred authority to call the prophets sinful.

The Koran not only speaks of individual prophets in terms of the highest praises, but also lays down clearly in general terms that the prophets cannot go, either in word or in deed, against any commandment of God: "They (prophets) do not precede Him in speech and only according to His commandments do they act" (21:27). And elsewhere it is said: "It is not attributable to a prophet that he should act unfaithfully" (3:16).

There are however certain words which have been misunderstood by some critics, who have rushed to the erroneous conclusion that the Koran gives no support to the doctrine of the immunity of the prophets. The most important of these words is istighfar which is generally taken as meaning asking for forgiveness of sins. It is said that Noah was a sinner because he prayed to God, saying: "My Lord! I seek refuge in Thee from asking Thee that of which I have no knowledge; and if Thou shoudst not forgive (taghfir) me and have mercy on me, I shall be of the losers" (11:47). The term istighfar carries, however, a wider significance, being derived from the root ghafr, which means the covering of a thing with that which will protect it from dirt. Hence, istighfar means only the seeking of a covering or protection, and therefore seeking of protection from sin, is as much a meaning of istighfar as the seeking of protection from the punishment of sin. Qastalani in his commentary on Bukhari, makes this quite clear, and adds that ghafr means sitr or covering, which is either between man and his sin or between sin and its punishment (Qs. 1:85)

The istighfar of the prophets in Koran, therefore, means only their flying for protection to God, for it is through Divine protection alone that they can remain sinless. Hence, the Prophet Muhammad (may peace be on him) is spoken of in a hadith as doing istighfar a hundred times a day; that is to say, he was every moment flying for protection to God, and praying to Him, that he may not go against His Will. It does not mean that he was asking for forgiveness of sins. Istighfar or the prayer for ghafr (protection) is in fact a prayer for Divine help. Thus, even those who have been admitted into paradise, are described as praying to God for His ghafr: "O Lord! make perfect for us our light and grant us protection (ighfir), for Thou hast power over all things" (66:8). The ordinary rendering is "forgive us" but forgiveness, in the narrow sense of pardoning of sins, is meaningless here, because none can be admitted into paradise unless his sins are pardoned. Ghafr, therefore, stands here for Divine help, not forgiveness in the spiritual advancement of man, which will continue even after death. On another occasion, maghfira, which is the same as ghafr, is described as a blessing of paradise: "For them therein are all kinds of fruits and protection (maghfira) from their Lord" (47:15). Maghfira is therefore one of the blessings of paradise.

Abraham is looked upon as a sinner because he is spoken of as expressing the hope that God "will forgive my mistake (khati'ati) on the day of judgment" (26:82). The word khat'a or khata, according to Raghib means, when a man intends the doing of a good thing but he happens to do instead something which he never intended, that is called khati'a (mistake). According to another view, the difference between khati'a (mistake) and ithm (sin) is that in the latter there is intention, which is not necessary in the former. It is one thing to commit a mistake and quite a different thing to go against the Divine commandments, and no sensible critic could twist such words into a confession of sin, and therefore, the terms khati'a or khata does not necessarily imply sin.

Another misunderstood word is dhanb (pl. dhunub) which is generally translated as meaning of sin; but dhanb also is a word with a very wide significance. According to Raghib, dhanb is originally taking the tail of a thing, and it is applied to every act the consequence of which is disagreeable or unwholesome. According to another, it means either a sin, or a crime, or a fault, and it is said to differ from ithm in being either intentional or committed through inadvertence, whereas ithm is definitely intentional.

Concerning Adam, it is undoubtedly said that "Adam disobeyed his Lord" (20:121), but even here there is no commission of sin, for as a preliminary to that incident, it is clearly stated: "And certainly We gave a commandment to Adam before, but he forgot; and We did not find in him any determination (to obey)" (20:115). There was no intention on the part of Adam to disobey the Divine commandments; it was simply forgetfulness that brought the disobedience. In Koran (2:36), where the same incident is related, the word used instead of disobedience, a derivation of zalla, occurring 60 times in the Koran, meaning a slip or a mistake. According to Ruh al-Ma'ani (Beirut, 1978, 1:235) by Abul Fazal Shihabuddin, "The violation of divine instruction is a sin only when it is devoid of tenable excuse. In case of Adam the excuse is niyan (forgetting)."

No doubt, the Koranic passage (20:115) quoted above exonerates Adam from the blame of his sin. The corollary of the unintentional nature of the sin of Adam and Eve is their demonstration of remorsefulness when they say: "Our Lord, we have wronged our soul; if Thou forgive us not and bestow not upon us, Thy mercy we shall certainly be lost" (7:23). It is in consequence of this remorsefulness that God turned to him mercifully (2:37). The expression used to denote forgiveness is taba alayhi, which signifies the return to a state of obedience as well as the divine act of acceptance of repentance. Thus, none of the prophets is spoken of in the Koran as having committed a sin, and therefore the doctrine of infallibility of the prophets is unassailable.

Moses is also said to have committed a sin by killing a Copt, but the Koran makes it clear that he simply used his fist to ward off an attack against an Israelite who was being ill-treated (28:15), and thus death was only accidental. No law would hold a man to be guilty under such circumstances. It is true that the dzall is used of Moses in connection with this incident on another (26:20), but dzalla means he was perplexed or confused, and it is in this sense that the word is there used. Striking with the fist not being ordinarily sufficient to cause to death of a person, therefore, it was an accidental death, not intentional. The word wukz used in the verse means beating with the use of hand and not the use of an instrument that could cause death. Moses was at that time 12 years old. Qurtubi writes in Jami li'Ahkam al-Koran (13:260) that, "The sins committed by prophets before prophethood, even if heinous and intentional, are not to be seen as undermining the doctrine of impeccability. Dzall is also employed with reference to the Prophet Muhammad in 93:7 in almost the same sense. This is not only made clear by the context, but also by the history of the Prophet's life, which shows that he shunned not only idolatry but all the evil practices of Arab society. Living within such society, he was not only free from the evils of that society, but was further anxious to find a way for its delivery from those evils. He saw around him the degraded condition of a fallen humanity but could not see the way to raise it up; it was God Who showed him that way, as the verse runs: "And He found thee unable (dzall) to see the way and He showed the way" (93:7).

The Prophet Muhammad (may peace be on him) is said to be a sinner on another occasion because he is commanded to seek Divine protection (istaghfir) for his dhanb (40:55). Seeking protection against sin does not mean that sin has been committed. He who seeks Divine protection means he guards himself against the commission of sin. The word used here is dhanb, which means any human shortcoming. The following verse may however be discussed at length: "We have given to thee a clear victory, that God may grant thee protection for that which has gone before of thy dhanb or the dhanb attributed to thee (dhanb-ka) and that which remains behind" (48:1-2). Even if the first interpretation (dhanb-ka, meaning thy dhanb or thy fault) is adopted, there is no imputation of sin, but only of human shortcoming. But as a matter of fact, dhanb-ka here means the dhanb attributed to thee, not thy dhanb. Similarly in 5:29 the word ithmi does not mean my sin, but the sin committed against me: "I wish that thou shouldst bear the sin against me (ithmi) and thy own sin".